Marine Le Pen regains lead in French presidential polls ahead of first round of voting

Date of publication: 03 04 2017, 19:12

France’s far-right leader Marine Le Pen has regained a top position in the popularity rating of presidential candidates in the first round of voting, according to OpinionWay poll results released on Monday.

According to the poll, the gap between Le Pen and her chief rival, former economics minister and the founder of the political movement “En Marche!”, Emmanuel Macron, is now just one percentage point.

Their positions in poll conducted on March 31 were equal, with both counting on 24% of votes.

The third in the trio of frontrunners is the nominee of the Republicans and former prime minister, Francios Fillon, who can count on 19% of votes in the first round of elections, the same amount as in late March.

The survey suggests however that Le Pen is lagging behind Macron in the second round of voting, with a gap of 26 percentage points between them still in place. According to OpinionWay, Macron can win 63% of votes in the runoff polling, while Le Pen can count on 37% In case Fillon makes it into the second round of elections, he can win 58% of votes whereas Le Pen will have 42%

Presidential elections in France will be held in two rounds, on April 23 and May 7.